When the Cerritos College women's soccer season opens on August 22 with a home scrimmage against Santiago Canyon College, the Falcons will be led by just the fourth head coach in school history. After spending the last six seasons as an assistant coach at South Coast Conference school Mt. San Antonio College, Yvette Vascones has been hired as the program's new head coach. Upon coming back from the Covid-19 pandemic, Tessa Troglia left her position at East Los Angeles College to take over the Cerritos program and guided them to an 11-19-5 record over the last two seasons.

Assuming her first head coaching assignment, Vascones expressed her excitement and gratitude to run the Cerritos program.

"This program has a rich history of being competitive and successful," stated Vascones. "I look forward to bringing that competitive edge to the program in a positive environment. I am excited and grateful to be part of the Falcon family and to be surrounded by so many great coaches and administrators."

Vascones has also served as an assistant coach at Cal State Los Angeles and San Bernardino Valley College. Her club coaching experience includes four years as the head coach with Legends FC.

In her time with the Mounties, Vascones saw the team advance to the 3rd Round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs in 2022 and were one win away from advancing to the 3C2A State Tournament. They reached the state semifinals in 2021.

 

She hopes to use her familiarity with the conference to help try and bring Cerritos back to national prominence.

"Even though we have these athletes for two years, the style of play remains the same for most of the teams (within the conference)," added Vascones. "We are in a competitive conference, but I am excited to compete against these strong programs with a style of play  that can make us successful. The beauty of soccer is that it's any given day, and we are ready for the challenge."

 

As a player at Cal Baptist University, Vascones was a four-time All-Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) selection, a two-time NAIA All-American honorable mention choice and NAIA All-Region selection. While playing for Cal Baptist, she led them to its first-ever women's soccer playoff win in 1999 and first-ever women's soccer regional final in 2001. Vascones still holds the Lancers' career records for points (122), assists (34) and ranks tied for fourth in goals (44) and is tied for 10th in games played (76). She still holds the program's single-season assists record (15).  In 2007, Vascones was inducted into the CBU Hall of Fame and is listed on the Riverside Hall of Fame Wall of Distinction.

 

"The ultimate goal for the program is to ensure that our student-athletes are prepared mentally, physically and academically." continued Vascones. "We want to prepare them for their next endeavor. Being part of the program, these student-athletes will understand the importance of hard work (both on the field and in the classroom), discipline, sportsmanship, sisterhood and being the best version of themselves. Long-term goals (for the program) include getting this program back to being one of the top competitors. Of course we all love to win championships (that is the goal), but to also ensure that these student-athletes develop that competitive mentality that will help them in the future. I want these ladies to leave our program with a sense of accomplishment and a love for our program and each other. When they graduate and return as alumni, they will reminisce about the good times they had here at Cerritos and appreciate the relationships and memories they made here."